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Monday, December 31, 2012

Book Kaleidoscope: My Top Five Most Favorite Books & Farewell 2012!

And here we
are…on the last day of this year. 2012 has been my most important year in term
of reading. This year (on March) I joined The Classics Club and it
really helps me to delve deeper into classics works. In fact, most of my
readings of this year were dominated by classics, most of my blog posts were in
this blog (Fanda Classiclit). For 2013 I’m planning to start reading books from
1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list; the works will be slightly
mixed between classics and non classics.

Speaking of
my readings of 2012 (I have read around 37 books), I have found a lot of great
books and/or authors that for years I have only seen the title/the name, but
now I am proud to say that I have read several of them. It’s been difficult to
rank only five of my favorites, but I finally came to this composition…

5.Beloved

This was one
of the strongest books I’ve ever read in my life, depicted a black woman’s
struggle to protect her children. Beloved was quite difficult to read,
as the story flowed forward and backward without clear signs, and only after
reading few chapters I could be more familiar with it. And this book is not a nice
reading too, although it makes us deeply touched. Therefore, fifth place is
fair enough for Beloved.

4.Twenty Years After

Not known as
much as The Three Musketeers, this second sequel is much better than the first.
As its title, Twenty Years After was a reunion of the four friends when
they were older and wiser. This is one of the books which I fully enjoyed the
reading, every page of it, even every word.

3.L’Assommoir

I remember that
I was shocked after finishing this book. Unlike any other books I have read,
this one is very honest—extremely honest. Then I just knew what ‘naturalism’ in
literature meant, that I instantly fell in love with Zola! I think my first
strong impression of this book that makes L’Assommoir becomes one of my
favorite books of all time, at least until now.

2.Great Expectations

Great Expectations is almost perfect as a reading companion. Dickens has been famous
for writing entertaining tales, that although his wordings are often tedious,
we can’t help to keep reading to know what will happen next to our favorite
characters. I enjoyed every word of this book, and rewarded also with the moral
value of this bildungsroman.

1.Germinal

Have I mentioned
that I’m a big fan of Emile Zola? Well, it’s not surprising then, that I
granted the most exclusive place in this Book Kaleidoscope to Germinal.
Sharp as it always is, Germinal also offers variety of amusements in the story—romances,
fights of the poor against the have, and a bigger hope that the oppressed could
get a better future. I always like stories about hope! And that makes Germinal
to be…

FANDA'S MOST FAVORITE BOOK OF 2012!

And this post would also be my last post to close this remarkable year of 2012. Thank you for all of you who has been joining me in this 2012 Book Kaleidoscope yearly meme. I had actually created it to amuse myself, and I'm so surprised that there were a lot of you who'd joined in. It had been wonderful because I could find new blogs and new books (although I'd never read them, but at least I know about them), and I'll positively host another Book Kaleidoscope for next year.

I would like also to thank all my followers, most of you followed me around this year. I hope you'd been enjoying my posts. I'm sorry if I could not return all your visits and comments, as I must keep the balance between reading, posts writing, events hosting, and blog walking. I wish I could be interacting with you more often next year. Meanwhile.....I wish you a HappyNewYear of2013! ...and I just can't wait for starting reading my 2013 piles of books!

That's a great list. I remember reading Beloved a few years ago - a bit too abstract for my taste, didn't really know where the line between fantasy and reality was.Emile Zola is relatively new to me, last year I've read "The Kill" and liked it a lot.See you in 2013, may it bring you many good and wonderful things!